Biography | Ola Källenius — The AMG Leadership He Took On in Affalterbach

Ola Källenius became chief executive of Mercedes-AMG on 1 July 2010, succeeding Volker Mornhinweg.

The appointment brought him from Mercedes-Benz's Alabama manufacturing operation to the performance subsidiary based in Affalterbach.

His earlier responsibilities had included operations at McLaren and leadership of Mercedes-Benz's Formula One engine business.

The AMG position combined that production experience with responsibility for a brand whose customers expected distinctive, high-performance cars.

Affalterbach was more than a name on a corporate letterhead.

Mercedes-Benz identifies the site at Daimlerstraße 1 as the home of AMG management, administration, vehicle development, testing and an engine manufactory.

Those functions explain why this working company site anchors the change in his responsibilities.

The date records the beginning of the appointment, rather than an undocumented arrival at a particular gate or office.

In a November 2010 interview, Källenius described plans to broaden AMG's product range and develop sales in additional markets.

He also discussed the connection between its electric SLS project and expertise from Formula One.

The interview captures the scope of the new job: maintaining a performance identity while deciding how it should develop.

The appointment was therefore a step beyond managing an individual production operation.

It involved the relationship between engineering, products and the customers for whom AMG built them.

His period in Affalterbach ended in October 2013, when Tobias Moers succeeded him and Källenius moved into Mercedes-Benz Cars marketing and sales.

Those later responsibilities should be distinguished from his subsequent appointment to Daimler's group management board.

The sequence shows how the AMG role fitted into his progression through different parts of the company.

The photograph is a later public portrait from the 2021 IAA motor show.

It illustrates the person, without presenting a later appearance as a photograph of his 2010 appointment.

Sources: [2010 Autoweek interview](https://www.autoweek.com/news/auto-shows/a1996181/amg-accelerates-new-boss-discusses-future-high-performance-brand/); [Mercedes-AMG announcement](https://www.conceptcarz.com/z18535/mercedes-benz-sls-amg-e-cell-prototype.aspx); [company site description](https://group.mercedes-benz.com/careers/about-us/locations/location-detail-page-5160.html); [career chronology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ola_K%C3%A4llenius).

Photo: Alexander Migl (Alexander-93), 6 September 2021, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ola_Kaellenius_IAA_2021_1X7A0275.jpg), resized. The photograph was taken eleven years after the appointment, not at Geneva in 2019.